I spent a night alone in one of Malaysia's top dark-tourism destinations, a 'haunted' hotel on a rem

• I spent a night at Amber Court in Genting Highlands, a resort town on a mountain in Malaysia.
• A studio room on the top floor cost $30 a night.
• The views from my balcony were gorgeous, but there's just one catch: The hotel is rumored to be haunted.

The town of Genting Highlands is located almost 6,000 feet above sea level in Malaysia. Today, it's one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.

Genting Highlands was built in the 1960s. Malaysian entrepreneur Lim Goh Tong wanted to create a mountain resort, so he established a private company, Genting Group, to construct the town.

The town, which is an hour's drive from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, is full of hotels and malls, as well as an amusement park and a casino.

"There are more than 10 hotels in Genting Highlands, including one of the largest hotels in the world — the First World Hotel, which has over 7000 rooms," Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah, associate professor of tourism and hotel management at MARA University of Technology, told me. 

The town is located on the peak of Mount Ulu Kali, which makes the local weather cooler than most places in Malaysia.

Amber Court is a hotel located just above the town's main settlement. It was built in the 1990s and has a reputation of being haunted.

Amber Court was developed to be the go-to hotel for a nearby theme park. The theme park, however, was never completed, and has since been abandoned. 

The hotel's developer, Villa Genting Development, was liquidated in 2000. The hotel fell into disrepair, with red algae coating its exterior and a parking lot full of rusting cars.

Over time, people started saying the hotel was haunted because of its eerie exterior. Vloggers would post videos of their trips to the hotel on YouTube, making it one of Malaysia's most visible dark tourism sites. A local horror film was even shot in the hotel, solidifying its reputation.

Mohd Hafiz has conducted extensive research on dark tourism in Malaysia. He said Amber Court's haunted reputation likely helped amplify its appeal to the growing segment of travelers interested in dark tourism — but he also said the management company likely did not embrace the reputation themselves.

"As a corporate entity, management would want to avoid relating Amber Court to dark tourism," he said.

In recent years, the hotel has scrubbed down the compound's algae-covered exterior and removed the abandoned cars from its parking lot. Even so, its reputation persists. Rumors of paranormal sightings at the hotel still circulate online — some claim to have seen an "evil woman" on the premises, while others said they heard someone howling in an empty hallway. 

I have long been curious if there's any truth to the hotel's ghostly reputation. Earlier this week, I booked a flight to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore and drove up Mount Kali for a night's stay at Amber Court. 

Insider paid for my stay, as is standard with our reporting trips. Amber Court did not respond to my requests for comment for this story.

I arrived in Genting Highlands on a foggy evening, when visibility was only about 50 meters (165 feet).

The drive from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the highlands was spooky. Thick fog covered the roads that encircled Mount Ulu Kali.

It took two hours to get to Amber Court, which was a few kilometers from the top of the mountain.

The lobby was quiet. There was nobody to greet me except the security guard.

A staff member checked me in after a five-minute wait and asked for a deposit of 100 Malaysia ringgit (around $23). He handed me two keys to a studio room on the 23rd floor, the highest floor in the hotel. The room cost $30 a night.

I tried to strike up a conversation with multiple staff members throughout my stay, but each time I got the same noncommittal response. No one, it appeared, was interested in talking to me about what it's like to work at the hotel.

The elevators were old and worn: Scratches and marks covered the doors. Black padding coated the walls.

The elevators were manned by security guards.

The hallways were empty and every sound I made echoed. There were around 10 rooms on my floor, many of which were padlocked.

While there were two keyholes on my door, only one of them worked.

Other rooms on the 23rd floor were in even worse condition. One door was riddled with holes and dents.

After the hotel's developer was liquidated, many of the rooms went unmaintained. Some rooms, like the one pictured above, are not used for hotel stays.

And while some of the units in the hotel are apartments that belong to private owners, others appear to be in a state of perpetual limbo. According to a government notice dated April 2022, dozens of the hotel's apartments are currently unclaimed. 

Upon first glance, things looked slightly better inside the room, which was furnished with hotel basics. But a closer look revealed that things were in bad shape.

The carpet was stained and the furnishings were worn out. There was also no air-conditioning unit, though the mountain breeze kept the room cool, especially at night.

The kitchen was basically a disaster.

It had a small stove, sink, microwave, and refrigerator. All the appliances worked, but that's the extent of positive things that can be said about them.

I decided not to cook anything as the kitchen creeped me out. Instead, I headed to the convenience store for some instant noodles.

The bedroom, too, was dirty: The walls were grimy, and the cupboards were falling apart.

There room had an en-suite bedroom with a queen-sized bed.

The bedsheets and mirror were speckled with grime, dirt, and what appeared to be blood.

Despite the stained bedsheets, I still decided to sleep in the bed. The hotel was quiet and peaceful all night long — there weren't any strange noises in the night.

The toilet was separate from the bathroom. It was poorly lit and had dead insects on the walls.

The toilet had a hose instead of a bidet.

The shower was in slightly better condition, but the water heater was faulty. The hotel provided basic amenities like soaps and dental kits.

The balcony opened up to an otherworldly view of foggy grasslands and abandoned apartments.

The balcony was my favorite part of the room — it was surreal to see fog forming a blanket over the landscape. It was a chilly evening, especially for Southeast Asian standards, as temperatures dipped below 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit). 

At night, it was pitch black outside.

I only saw one or two hotel guests during my stay.

The morning brought a pleasant surprise: With last night's fog long gone, I could see winding roads etched into the vast grasslands.

It was a breathtaking sight.

Feeling a bit braver in the light of day, I ventured down into the abandoned parking lot in the hotel's basement. It offered a glimpse into what Amber Court looked like before it was renovated in 2019.

Parts of the parking lot were covered in red algae. There were dozens of rooms in the basement, all of them empty and crumbling. 

The windows offered the same stunning views that I had from my room. 

Despite its haunted reputation, I found no ghosts during my stay at Amber Court. Instead, I found respite from the bustle of the city and the heat of the tropics.

The trip up the mountain was well-worth it. Amber Court offered some of the best views in metropolitan Malaysia. I felt it was priced fairly, especially considering that it's in a town made specifically for tourists. And the foggy evening and cool weather were just perfect.

That said, it's definitely not a trip for everyone. If you're squeamish, superstitious, or easily spooked, Amber Court is probably one expedition for you to skip.

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